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Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Predators Stun Wild in 5-4 Miracle Victory

The Nashville Predators struck with their most unbelievable comeback victory of the year with a 5-4 win where the Preds came back from two three-goal deficits including finding the net three times in the last 3:21 of the game.

The Preds scored four times in the final period with two goals from Mike Fisher, including the game-tying goal and the game winner, and single goals from Patric Hornqvist and Brandon Yip. Matt Halischuk had the other Predator goal in the second period when the team was down 3-1.

Pekka Rinne did not have his best game but held firm when it counted stopping 21 of 25 Wild shots to pick up his tenth win in a row. Josh Harding was the hard luck loser for the Wild, giving up five goals on 30 shots.

Dany Heatley had two goals in the losing effort and Cal Clutterbuck and Kyle Brodziak added single goals in what appeared to be an easy win for the Wild.

The victory moved the Predators to 66 points and fourth place in the Western Conference, a point behind Detroit, who was playing at Calgary.

Make the jump for more details and a few comments from the couch...

At The Puck Drop...

Pekka Rinne (28-11-4, 2.36, .925) was in goal for the Predators while Josh Harding (9-6-3, 2.42, .925) was between the pipes for Minnesota.

The Predators were slow out of the gate to start the game as is typical after a long break as they have been 3-6-1 after three day or more breaks over the last season and a half.. Patrick Hornqvist and David Legwand had good scoring chances early.

Heatley put the Wild ahead 1-0 at 8:04 on an assist from Nick Johnson.

Justin Falk put the Preds on the man advantage at 9:39 to give Nashville a chance to tie the game. Colin Wilson got the only shot on the man advantage.

Shea Weber was called for holding Kyle Brodziak at 12:15. Heatly scored his second goal on his second shot of the power play to put Minnesota up 2-0.

The Predators played a little better toward the end of the opening period and had the final five shots of the period in the closing three periods. Craig Smith had three shots to be the only multiple shot player in the period for Nashville.

1st Period

Goals

Shots

Corsi

PIMs

Faceoffs

Predators

0

10

23

1-2:00

14-14 50%

Wild

2

11

18

1-2:00

14-14 50%

Second Period...

The Wild came out with renewed enthusiasm to start the second period and Clutterbuck put in an odd bouncing wrister from close to the net at 1:29 to put up a seemingly insurmountable 3-0 lead. Cullen picked up his second helper of the evening.

Jordin Tootoo and Clutterbuck hooked up with a slashing/roughing coincidental minor at 6:02 to generate two minutes of four on four play. The Wild outshot the Preds 2-1 during the resulting play.

At 9:33, Halischuk scored his twelfth goal of the year on a tip from Kevin Klein. Yip got his first point as a Predator with the secondary assist. As the period wore down, Nashville appeared to be playing with more enthusiasm.

2nd Period

Goals

Shots

Corsi

PIMs

Faceoffs

Predators

1

8

14

1-2:00

14-12 54%

Wild

1

7

19

1-2:00

12-14 46%

Third Period...

Any hopes that Nashville had of making a comeback was dealt a severe blow 16 seconds into the final period when Brodziak slipped the puck past Rinne to extend Minnesota's lead to three again at 4-1. Johnson picked up his second assist of the game and Heatley got his third point with a helper on the play.

The Predators scored a goal at 9:22 to pull within two at 4-2 when Yip put the puck over the line on a play that was never indicated as a goal until it was reviewed. Halischuk and Craig Smith picked up helpers.

Unbelievably, the Predators pulled within a goal at 4-3 at 16:39 when Hornqvist put the puck in the net with assists going to Kostitsyn and Weber.

Twenty-one seconds later, Fisher scored to tie the game at 4-4 with assists going to Colin Wilson and Marty Erat.

The miracle comeback was completed with 21 seconds remaining and time winding down when Fisher scored an unassisted goal to seal the Predators 5-4 victory.

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